Toward Eternity

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

~Emily Dickinson


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Since I started my photographic series on famous graves, there has been one grave I knew I wanted to include, but have been putting off as it's a two-hour drive from where I live.

Today I finally made my pilgrimage to the grave of Emily Dickinson in Amherst, Massachusetts. (Followers of my journal may have noticed that she's one of my favorite poets.) One of the several themes for which Dickinson's poetry is known is that of death. I learned today that from the age of 9 until she was 24, she lived in another house where her room overlooked the very cemetery where she was eventually buried. And in that cemetery, not even a stone's throw from her family plot, is indeed a "town tomb" that was "...a house that seemed A swelling of the ground; The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound" just as she described in the poem above.

My husband and daughter were wonderful sports and even went on a tour of Emily's home with me. Despite the 85F/30C heat and high humidity, I had goosebumps most of the day. This is perhaps not my best photo of a grave (that fence six inches in front of the gravestone was a bit problematic), but it is probably the most meaningful to me.